Minneapolis neighborhood restaurant Heather's expanding to the suburbs

With just 37 seats inside, Heather Asbury's little restaurant in south Minneapolis was always meant to be a neighborhood joint. Opening Heather's days before the pandemic shutdown, however, Asbury needed to change course quickly.

She erected a large, heated tent that still stands outside the restaurant and can accommodate another 70 guests. She kept the place open three meals a day throughout the pandemic, and the little neighborhood restaurant's devoted fan base grew.

With many customers driving to Heather's from well beyond 52nd and Chicago — most notably, from the western suburbs — Asbury is now preparing to bring the neighborhood restaurant to them.

This fall, she will open a second, much larger Heather's in Minnetonka. She's taken over the building at the corner of Eden Prairie Road and Excelsior Boulevard, which used to house the lively sushi spot Kazoku, and the Copper Cow before that.

She was looking for a kitchen large enough for her catering business when she and her brother, a business partner, "stumbled upon" a ready-made restaurant.

"We were thinking we would do minimal, just like paint some walls and get in there and do some catering, and then once we took ahold of it, we felt like we wanted to make it our own thing," said Asbury, who spent a decade managing the legendary Lucia's in Minneapolis.

They're lightening up the space with splashes of her favorite color, green. A new granite bar has just been installed. "Fresh plants, fresh flowers, and really light, bright and feminine," she said of the decor. "I'd like it to be a place where you feel comfortable coming often, and feels kind of like home."

Fans of the changing-nightly specials at Heather's will be pleased to find versions of some of them on the Minnetonka menu. The most popular dish in Minneapolis, the salmon bowl, will be there, unchanged. "People are very committed to that," she said. Salads and sandwiches will be a big part of the menu, as will a market with items that can easily be picked up to bring home, or taken across the street to Unmapped Brewing Co.

"I wouldn't say it's the same exact menu as Minneapolis," she said, but it will similarly follow the seasons and farmers markets for inspiration.

Libation Project is creating the cocktail menu, and Asbury is developing a wine list similar to the one in Minneapolis. "I'm not really going to do mainstream wines, and I think [Minnetonka] is ready for it," she said.

The new spot will seat 86 inside and another 66 on a patio.

Asbury is staffing up now and hopes to open for some trial runs in September, with a grand opening in October.

She's approached much of the new operation with DIY intentions, but the hardest part isn't painting the walls. It's the commute.

"I'm like, 62 will either be a 12-minute drive or a 45-minute drive," she said, laughing. "A lot of our customers here [in Minneapolis] drive from out west. So I'm hearing a lot of buzz from people who come here often, like, 'Thank god I don't have to drive as far.'"

Heather's is at 5201 Chicago Av. S., Mpls., 612-445-8822, heathersmpls.com. A second location opens this fall at 5445 Eden Prairie Road.